Economic Freedom of the World Report 2011

Posted on September 21, 2011

On September 20, 2011, Samriddhi, The Prosperity Foundation in partnership with SEJON (Society of Economic Journalists – Nepal) and FNCCI (Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce), released the Economic Freedom of the World Report in Nepal in an event at FNCCI, Kathmandu. The Economic Freedom of the World Report is an annual report prepared by Fraser Institute, a think tank based in Canada in partnership with similar think tanks in more than 70 countries all around the world. Samriddhi, The Prosperity Foundation represents Nepal in the network.

Nepal’s rank has slightly decreased to 129 out of 141 countries this year with a score of 5.50, which can be associated with the overall decrease of scores of other countries as well. Nepal continues to be one of the least free countries in the world in case of economic freedom.

At the event, constitutional expert Dr. Bhimarjun Acharya emphasized that rule of law is an integral requisite for economic prosperity. He shared that only when our political leaders understand the meaning and need of economic freedom, Nepal can scale up in the future reports of Economic Freedom. Former finance minister, Mr. Madhukar SJB Rana discussed about how high inflation rate in Nepal has led to unavailability of sound money. He highlighted the importance of trade liberalization in a country like ours.

Senior economist, Dr. Bishwamber Pyakurel told the media that Nepal is not unable of economic prosperity but needs to realize that we are far behind in executing appropriate policies for achieving it. Other senior economist Dr. Chiranjibi Nepal underlined on the data of former communist nations and how they progressed economically after opening their doors to economic freedom.

Nepal’s score and rank in 5 key areas of economic freedom (from 1 to 10, where a higher value indicates a higher level of economic freedom and a higher ranking) are as follows:

Size of government: lowered from 6.20 to 6.10

Legal structures and security of property rights: improved from 3.51 to 3.9

Browse More Posts

Economic Freedom of the World Report Release

The Fraser Institute, Canada’s top ranked think tank, produces the annual Economic Freedom of the World report in cooperation with the Economic Freedom Network, a group of independent research and educational institutes in nearly 90 nations and territories. Samriddhi, The Prosperity Foundation is one of the co-publishing institutes and has been a member of the Economic Freedom Network for the last 8 years. Read More...